Super Bowl 51 Line Won’t Budge Off 3: Patriots Seeing 70 Percent Spread Action

While one or two Vegas books moved the line to New England -3 over the past few days, the Super Bowl 51 number has been among the most steady of the entire NFL season at -3.

In recent years, the Super Bowl line has tended to be close.

While we know New England has been phenomenal Against The Spread this season at 15-3, Atlanta would have led the pack in any other year with an ATS record of 12-6.

In case you were wondering, 70 percent of those betting the -3 point spread were backing the Pats.  In Super Bowl terms this will result in some degree of bloodshed for the books.  Even at 55/45 ratio leave plenty of exposure due to the volume.  Fortunately there are props to minimize the damage.

Forbes, not necessarily known for their sports prediction prowess, says the Patriots should win.

What Forbes does know is money.  They note that, last year, Americans spent more than $4.2 billion on Super Bowl bets and that number is only expected to go up this year.

Forbes does raise a good point about Super Bowl 51 and New England’s chance for another victory.

Teams that have posted scoreboard-busting numbers over the years don’t win championships, as the six squads that put up more points in a season than Atlanta all failed to capture the title. Only two of those teams, the 2013 Broncos and the 2007 Patriots, reached the Super Bowl. And even then, those two powerful offenses combined for only 22 points in the Big Game.

In other words, defense wins Super Bowls. 

- Mary Montgomery, Gambling911.com